To adjust a ski binding which consists of a front jaw and a heel holder to various shoe sizes, it has been necessary, already for a long time, to design at least one ski binding part to be movable in the longitudinal direction of the ski and to be lockable in predetermined positions. The adjustable ski binding part has for this purpose an adjusting mechanism with a locking mechanism.
The heel holder is in common ski bindings movably guided in general by means of a base plate on a guide rail which can be fastened on the upper side of the ski. The heel holder or its base plate has a releasable notch, whereas the guide rail has an opposing notch. Such a locking mechanism is described for example in Swiss Pat. No. 469 492.
With the increasing demands for the arrangement of ski bindings on the upper side of a ski or skis by the skier, a new demand was, however, also made to shift the center of gravity of the skier and thus the shoes together with the binding forwardly or backwardly relative to an imaginary transverse line on the ski. It has therefore been demanded to now also design the front jaw adjustably in the longitudinal direction of the ski. Since, however, the front jaws usually have a slightly different construction compared with the heel holder, and their function with respect to the holding of the ski shoe differs from the one of the heel holders, it was necessary to develop a new system for adjusting the front jaw of a ski binding.
Flaps have therefore been developed, which permit a disengagement of a locking part from a corresponding locking recess. Such adjusting mechanism have already become known in various forms of construction.
Another type of common locking mechanism is described for example in European AS No. 0084324. A disengagement occurs thereby through a handle part which is manually shifted and through this lifts a leaf spring, which presses a locking pin into a locking recess, after which the jaw can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the ski. If one leaves out the lever, then the locking pin engages the corresponding locking recess and the jaw is fixed in the longitudinal direction of the ski.
This development has, however, together with all other similar lever constructions, a disadvantage, namely, that the jaw adjustment can be carried out only if at the same time a handle part is held. A one-hand operation is thus only possible in a shop (when the shoe is clamped), not, however, on a slope. The change of the center of gravity and thus of the skiing characteristics is, however, also to be assured under these circumstances.
The goal of the invention is now to provide a movable or adjustable front jaw with a locking mechanism, which permits in a comfortable manner a secure engagement and a disengagement through a one-hand operation and, in addition, on the slope.
The set purpose is attained inventively by the operating member being supported on the locking part and being provided with at least two surfaces or surface sections, which define an angle with one another and of which each lies at a different distance from a support point or pin and thus determines the engaged or disengaged position of the locking part, and the two surfaces or surface sections are held or pressed against the housing in these positions selectively by the spring.
It is now possible for the first time through the invention to disengage the locking mechanism through a simple handling of the operating member and to fix it in the unlocked condition, which permits any desired manual movement of the front jaw. Also the re-engagement is very simple.
This effect can thereby be achieved either by the operating member having a support area, on which the operating member is supported during its swivelling on the housing, whereby the support area in the closed or open position of the operating lever is on the one or other side of a plane extending through the centerline of the support point; or by the operating member having a support area which is rotatably supported in the housing, and on which support area is supported the operating member during its pivoting on the housing, whereby the support point or pin is movably arranged through an elongated slot in the locking part or in the operating member and in the closed or open position of the operating member is provided on the one or other side of a plane extending through the support area and defines a preferably right angle with the upper side of the housing.
These two embodiments of the invention permit likewise in an optimum manner to attain advantageously the set purpose, whereby the second embodiment is built slightly smaller, but has more individual structural parts.
The first embodiment is formed according to a further development of the invention at its support area by the merging of the two surfaces, whereby the support area is preferably formed by a rounded area. The further development, according to which the support area is arranged on a vertical climb curve of an eccentric, effects a very simple adjusting of the locking part from the engaged into the disengaged position, whereby the upper side of the housing is substantially protected by the rounded area. The operating member can thereby, as is actually known, be designed itself as an eccentric cam, whereby the locking effect occurs in particular very reliably, as when, in the locked position, the one surface of the operating member lies in a parallel plane and its other surface in a normal plane with respect to the longitudinal center axis of the locking part.
According to another modification, the operating member is a handle connected in one piece to the surfaces and the vertical climb curve. The handle can have any desired shape and can therefore be adjusted at an optimum to the styling of the jaw member.
The handle can for example according to a different special development of the invention be a one-arm lever, the one end of which carries a handle part and the other end of which carries the surfaces and the vertical climb curve.
According to still another development of the invention, the handle can be designed as a rotary button or a rotary roller.
According to a further development of the invention, the handle can be arranged on a shaft, which carries the eccentric.
A form of construction of the locking part which is very reliable in operation and is simple to manufacture, is characterized according to a further development of the invention by the locking part having at its end which faces the base plate a piston carrying the locking pin, and an abutment surface for the spring, which piston is guided in a preferably cylindrical recess of the housing, whereby the housing at a location remote from the guide rail forms an opposing surface for the spring. This form of construction furthermore permits an especially good force transfer between the locking pin and the locking recess, whereby the shearing forces are effectly absorbed by the recess of the housing.
In order to avoid as much as possible the external effects caused by snow, ice, brush etc., it is provided that the operating member in the locked position is at least partially countersunk in the housing. Safety is thereby further increased when the handle part, viewed in the skiing direction, is arranged in front of the support point or pin and extends toward the tail of the ski.
Another particularly advantageous form of the invention is characterized by the support point or pin engaging movably a substantially horizontally elongated slot of the locking part, whereby at least one end of the slot is farther from an imaginary vertical centerline of the locking part than the support area.
According to another development of the invention it is provided, for especially heavy loads, that the locking part is designed twofold and is arranged on both sides of the centerline of the ski.
Another development provides that the handle part can be operated only by a tool, which prevents an unauthorized manipulation by unknowledgeable persons, or at least make such manipulation more difficult.